Summary
Oil is essential to the compressor, but oil brings side effects on the heat exchanger performance. It is preferred to reduce the amount of oil circulating in the system and retain the oil in the compressor for both reliability and efficiency reasons. Oil leaves the compression chamber in the form of mist. Oil droplets are propelled by refrigerant vapor flow and form a developing annular-mist flow in the discharge pipe, as droplets gradually attach to the inner wall. In this paper, a video-based method to quantify the oil flow in the compressor discharge pipe is presented. Oil droplet size, oil droplet velocity, oil film thickness, and oil film wave velocity are measured at different mass flow rates and compressor speed. The measurements show a variety of oil flow parameters as functions of distance along the discharge pipe. The impact of system flow rate, compressor type, and oil properties are also discussed. The characteristics of oil discharged by the compressor provide essential information for oil separator design and optimization. The research approach also has the potential to be applied in other multiphase studies.
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Details
- Original title: Characteristics of oil annular-mist flow in the compressor discharge pipe.
- Record ID : 30026972
- Languages: English
- Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 107
- Publication date: 2019/11
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2019.07.012
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Indexing
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Themes:
Compressors;
Lubricants - Keywords: Pipe; CFD; Measurement; Discharge; Oil separator; Oil; Droplet; Expérimentation; Flow rate; Compressor
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Oil flow measurement at the compressor discharge.
- Author(s) : XU J., HRNJAK P.
- Date : 2016/07/11
- Languages : English
- Source: 2016 Purdue Conferences. 23rd International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue.
- Formats : PDF
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Measurement of mist to annular flow development...
- Author(s) : WUJEK S. S., HRNJAK P. S.
- Date : 2012/07/16
- Languages : English
- Source: 2012 Purdue Conferences. 14th International Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Conference at Purdue.
- Formats : PDF
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Characterization of oil droplets in the upper c...
- Author(s) : WU P., CHEN J., SOJKA P. E., LI Y., CAO H.
- Date : 2021/05
- Languages : English
- Source: 2021 Purdue Conferences. 25th International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue.
- Formats : PDF
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Analytical and CFD modeling of the fluid flow i...
- Author(s) : ALVES M. V. C., BARBOSA J. R. Jr, PRATA A. T.
- Date : 2013/11
- Languages : English
- Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 36 - n. 7
- Formats : PDF
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Quantification of flow and retention of oil in ...
- Author(s) : XU J., HRNJAK P.
- Date : 2017/08
- Languages : English
- Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 80
- Formats : PDF
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